Trump: Iran was ‘the bully of the Middle East, but no longer’

Continuing his national address from the White House, President Donald Trump says the US military will strike Iran “extremely hard” over the next 2-3 weeks, with talks to continue at the same time.

“Regime change was not our goal, we never said regime change,” he insists. Nevertheless, he claims “regime change has occurred because “all of their leaders” have died and those remaining “are less radical and much more reasonable.”

“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants, very hard, and probably simultaneously,” he says, adding that the US has refrained from striking Iranian oil installations even though they are “the easiest target of all, because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding.”

“The nuclear sites we obliterated with the B-2 bombers have been hit so hard that it would take months to get near the nuclear dust,” Trump goes on. “If we seem them even make a move — even a move — for it, we will hit them with missiles very hard again.”

“We have all the cards, they have none, it’s very important we keep this conflict in perspective,” he says, comparing previous US wars that lasted for years to the current monthlong conflict.

He also says the Iranians “were the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no longer,” calling the war “a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future” while adding that Americans can now “look forward to a day when we are finally free from Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail.”

“Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of eliminating Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world… and when we do, it’s all over, the United States will be safer, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.”